


get ready and set (and go)

by Fluffifullness



Series: Trope Bingo Round Two - Multifandom [4]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Canon Related, Community: trope_bingo, F/F, F/M, Genderbending, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2013-10-27
Packaged: 2017-12-30 14:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffifullness/pseuds/Fluffifullness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starting as early as day one of Nagisa’s first year at Iwatobi High, there are whispers all over school about the long-haired beauty in class 1C.</p>
            </blockquote>





	get ready and set (and go)

**Author's Note:**

> Written to satisfy my trope_bingo card's "genderswap" square. Events from canon have been shuffled around a bit for the purposes of this fic, but it's still close enough to qualify as sort of an alternate canon. Also, I took some inspiration from a [fanart post on tumblr](http://haru-can-you-not.tumblr.com/post/64775042659#). (The source is in the post, too, but [here's that link](http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=3286013).)

Starting as early as day one of Nagisa’s first year at Iwatobi High, there are whispers all over school about the long-haired beauty in class 1C.

She’s tall, smart, quiet (or maybe just a little reserved) and athletic to boot – already committed to joining the track team, they say, and her lithe muscles make it easy to believe. Nagisa happens to be in the same class as her, so he knows that the stories are at least mostly true. One sideways glance as he’s on his way out (to look for Mako-chan and Haru-chan, because that’s just _got_ to be the most important thing after years without any kind of reunion) is more than enough to tell him that those guys are all justified, acting shy and stealing glances when they’re sure she’s not looking.

 _Ryugazaki-san… huh,_ he muses. He hasn’t spoken to her any more than the rest of his classmates have, of course, but that’s really not because he’s too timid or scared or anything like that. No one who seems that kind could possibly be out to hurt anybody, so why worry? Good looks are only intimidating if you let them be.

He puts it off, though, because the thrill of reuniting with his old friends sweeps him away quickly, leaves him with little time or energy to spare on making new ones. By the third day of class, he finds that he can’t stop stealing the same glances as everyone else does. All _he_ sees, though, is the devotion with which Ryugazaki’s always poring over textbooks, long lists of equations – things like that, super-serious school stuff. She even runs part of the way to school in the mornings.

It doesn’t seem right to interrupt that careful routine, after all, so Nagisa hides his quiet smiles and lets her be.

Until, of course, they all learn that they won’t be able to get the new swim club going without a fourth member to complete it. There are probably _lots_ of potential candidates out there, but the only one Nagisa keeps coming up with is Ryugazaki-san, Ryugazaki-san, Ryugazaki-san.

He goes through the motions, anyway. He even manages to lose track of how many people he’s tried to bribe into joining, and he definitely doesn’t hold any bars – or whatever the expression’s supposed to be. And it only makes him the _tiniest_ bit happy when his efforts nevertheless wind up getting him nowhere.

Ryugazaki-san is definitely a nice person, so he’s sure she’ll at least hear him out.

**~*~**

“I refuse.”

“What? But you’d be so good at it, Ryugazaki-san!”

She stares down at him – _down,_ he thinks, he hadn’t realized that she was quite _that_ tall – with a look of vague impatience and her arms crossed on her chest.

“I’m not interested,” she repeats, and with a bored-sounding sigh lets one hand fall to her side. The other goes for the pair of track shoes still sitting in her open locker.

Shutting the door with a loud, metal-y clanging, she adds, “I have practice now, anyway, so if you wouldn’t mind,” raises one eyebrow pointedly and indicates with sharp nod that Nagisa should step aside for her to pass.

Nagisa complies with an awkward stumbling motion and then stands still to watch her go. Stops smiling the moment her back is turned to him, and sighs, himself, to alleviate some of the heavy weight that’s already settling on his chest.

Lingers, just for a second, and then turns to walk… well, maybe in the opposite direction, he’s not sure, he’s a little too dazed by disappointment to devote a lot of thought to much of anything else – but he stops short when he notices the name scrawled neatly on the front of Ryugazaki-san’s locker.

Ryugazaki… Rei.

 _Rei-chan,_ Nagisa decides, his buoyant grin returning instantly. The simple fact of her name is like a wordless reminder that making friends is never impossible, not even after little setbacks like this, and anyway Nagisa’s happy to have learned something extra. Lots of people probably know Ryugazaki-san’s first name, but he didn’t have to hear it from them, anyway, and that makes the little discovery seem a lot more important, somehow.

When he changes direction again to go searching for the others, it’s with a renewed bounce in his step.

**~*~**

Nagisa’s noticed it dozens of times already, but Rei-chan’s hair really is long. It has that look that makes you think it just _has_ to smell amazing, like strawberries or something – though strawberries might not suit Rei-chan all that well, given how incredibly sophisticated she is – and it reaches all the way down to her hips. Hindered only by their school’s drastically short uniform skirt, the strands barely manage to avoid tickling the backs of her legs.

Apparently, she keeps it pulled back in a simple ponytail just for practice. Nagisa kind of really likes that, too, though, because it makes the short pieces in front stand out to frame her face better. And it’s still so long that he can’t help worrying about it getting in the way of her movements.

Of course, it doesn’t. Rei-chan makes flying through the air with nothing but a long, thin pole for support look like child’s play – easy, graceful, _exhilarating –_ and everything right down to that long ponytail follows in a perfect arc over the bar and back down to the mat below.

For just a fraction of an instant and at the peak of her mid-air flight, the sun catches a few strands and the frame of her face in profile, lights them up white and golden with little ovals of blue – so that for just that fraction of an instant, time stops and the whole universe seems to snap into place.

It’s just one, single, maybe-misplaced moment in time, but that’s exactly why it matters so much.

When Makoto casually suggests that Ryugazaki-san would be great at diving, Nagisa agrees as enthusiastically as he possibly can – with everything he has, just like Rei.

**~*~**

The next morning, he catches her as she’s leaving the train a station ahead of the one Nagisa usually gets off at. She looks startled to see him, but when he asks to jog with her to school, she doesn’t refuse.

Except that she _does_ seem to be pretty taken-aback by Nagisa’s use of her first name. She glances around when she hears it the first time, repeats “Rei-chan?” with a startled frown and then shakes her head just slightly when she catches sight of Nagisa.

“Yep!” he chimes, grin widening. “I was hoping I’d be able to catch you in time –”

“Why are you using my first name?” she interrupts perplexedly, and just then there’s no denying that the bewildered look of concern on her face is nothing short of endearing.

“You can call me Nagisa, if you want,” he offers.

“I refuse. We’re not that close, anyway. It’s improper.”

“Proper?” Nagisa laughs in spite of himself. “Sorry. I don’t mean anything bad by it, though. I just like the name ‘Rei-chan,’ is all. Plus, it’s friendlier, right? Calling you ‘Ryugazaki-san’ forever would be too cold!”

Rei sighs, exasperated, and finally seems to have given up on responding to Nagisa. That’s the first time she decides to coolly tolerate him, and it’s also the first time he notices her habit of adjusting that boyish pair of red-framed glasses every now and then. Her eyebrows tend to slant downward in a mild frown, and when she speaks, the words come out sounding formal almost to the point of stiffness.

Which is sort of funny, actually, because Rei-chan probably isn’t nearly as uptight as she likes to think she is. Nagisa can already tell that behind all the heavy reservation is someone eager to enjoy herself – excitable, silly, awkward. Fun to be around.

Hiding, but definitely there.

It occurs to him that that might actually be part of the reason for everyone’s slight decrease in interest lately; he vaguely remembers hearing someone call her “weird,” but that’s not it, exactly, and it’s really not fair.

Rei-chan’s not very sociable, true, but it’s not like she’s doing anything wrong at all. She’s not even mean; she’s probably just trying to stay out of trouble, and if she wants to keep to herself, that’s her business – not that Nagisa’s going to let it deter him any.

So, he talks to her as they run, tells her about Haru and Mako-chan and random things they all used to do when they were kids. He doesn’t mention Rin-chan, but that’s only because he’s afraid of making it sound like they need Rei-chan as a replacement. That’s not it at all, and besides – Rin’s not here now, so what he’s done and who he is shouldn’t have to become a topic of constant worry for Rei-chan, too.

He starts to steer toward talking about Haru-chan, instead. Rei’s mentioned “beautiful” things more than once, now – the first time they ever spoke, in fact, and then maybe a few times here and there since then – and Nagisa can’t think of a single better example when it comes to swimming.

“I told her she was like a dolphin once,” he laughs. “Just ‘cause she really swims well. I’ve never seen anything else like it, so maybe no one can do it that way, after all.” He tilts his head and smiles wider at Rei. “It’s still worth trying, though, right?”

“Haru-chan, huh,” Rei muses. “Is she your girlfriend?”

“What? Oh! No,” Nagisa flushes, covering the back of his head with the open palm of his hand. “Um, Haru-chan’s already with Mako-chan… I think.”

Not entirely willing to upset Rei’s apparently touchy ideas about what’s “proper” and what’s not, Nagisa intentionally neglects to mention – at least for now – that Mako-chan’s also a girl and that the two of them have been close friends-could-be-girlfriends for years already. That’s a whole other story, anyway, and then it’s so full of hesitation that it’d probably wind up boring her if it didn’t seem strange to her.

(He hopes that the ‘-chan’ honorific won’t make it really, _really_ obvious. Rei-chan probably doesn’t know, but Nagisa uses it with lots of people, boys and girls. It’s an old habit that he’s never wanted to kill.)

Rei-chan only studies the pensive look on Nagisa’s face for a long moment before sighing again.

“Is that so.”

“It is,” Nagisa responds absently.

“That isn’t why you continue to insist upon following me around like this, is it?”

It takes Nagisa a moment to process Rei’s intended meaning; when he does, he’s actually startled enough by it to take a too-quick breath that stabs all the way to the achy bases of his lungs. The result is a brief fit of hoarse coughs and shaky inhalations, and to really top all that off, he accidentally stumbles over his own feet, completely dead-ending on his running.

Rei slows to a stop beside him, eyes wide and concerned despite the tone of her voice. “Was that a sensitive question for you?”

“No,” Nagisa says breathlessly. “Sorry, it’s just that I honestly hadn’t thought about it at all.” Noticing the half-insulted expression that crops up as a response, he smiles and glances nervously away to add, “I mean, I’ve always been clumsy with things like that – I guess. I really think Rei-chan’s beautiful, though.”

“Huh?”

She sounds incredulous, maybe even insulted – as though Nagisa could only be lying through his teeth, saying something like that so blatantly and so out of the blue.

“Pole vaulting,” Nagisa explains. “Your form was really incredible, almost like flying! I thought, ‘if only she could do that with swimming, our team would be amazing!’”

“Impossible. Swimming and track are two completely different things. To compare one to the other like that is… frankly, it defies logic. I just can’t understand what could possibly be beautiful about a sport done in _water,_ of all things.”

“What’s wrong with at least trying, Rei-chan? _Please._ We really need another person on our team…”

Nagisa expects another outright refusal, but instead of that he gets the healthy, active flush in Rei’s cheeks darkening to an embarrassed blush. She scrutinizes him for another moment – maybe checking to make sure that he’s still capable of following her should she choose to jog off again – and then turns her back to him.

“I’ll consider it.”

**~*~**

Nagisa’s sure they all feel a bit lucky when that consideration miraculously extends to a joint practice with Samezuka. It’s their first-ever official act as a real swim club, after all, so even if they’re still _technically_ just a three-man team, it feels like progress.

For Nagisa, it’s also the perfect opportunity to show Rei-chan just what he means when he talks about the beauty of swimming.

Of course, when his turn to swim comes up, he knows intuitively that Rei’s not watching. He assumes it’s just because she’s nervous; the plan was supposed to have been that she wouldn’t have to swim at all, herself, but the Samezuka guys have a lot more foresight than Nagisa would have given them credit for. The fact that they’re part of an all-boys school apparently hasn’t prevented them from gathering up a small collection of girls’ swimsuits in various sizes – _for joint practices like this, is all_ , one of them insists awkwardly when Haruka gives him one of her more skeptical looks. Naturally, there was one that perfectly fit Rei-chan.

“I – I didn’t bother shaving before this,” she’d stammered uncomfortably as a sympathetic Makoto guided her back into the changing rooms. “I really can’t do it _now_ –”

 _Sorry, Rei-chan,_ Nagisa thinks for the hundredth time as he somersaults and kicks his way back toward the starting block. He almost hangs back, if only because every second of delay is another that will give Rei a chance to build her courage. Nagisa’s not sure if it’s because she’s really shy, after all, or if it’s just that she’s worried about swimming more slowly than the others; either way, he wants and _needs_ her calm enough to enjoy herself. It shouldn’t be a huge deal, just casual practice – the only comforting thing he could think to say to her before jumping into his own trial.

He doubts that it’s even possible for Rei-chan to have that hard a time competing, anyway. She’s in better shape than he is, and besides that she’s got the form to rival half the guys here. She may still be a first-timer, but he’s sure she’ll at least manage to surprise everyone – herself included – with or without any experience.

Nagisa climbs out of the pool just in time to see Rei slipping into a starting position. The look of concentration on her face is so intense that it might as well be one of total distraction, and Nagisa wonders briefly if she’s running through calculations in her head again. He wonders if it helps.

And then he wonders if maybe he should have put a little more thought into Rei’s repeated refusals. He’s managed to come up with a ton of theories about it lately, but that Rei-chan would just sink like a rock is one outcome he never would have managed to guess on his own. It might even be funny if it weren’t also largely his fault.

He can hear Makoto saying something to her from a distance; knowing Mako-chan, it’s probably some kind of wholehearted encouragement or reassurance. She’s always worrying too much about other people, but then it’s also times like these that make her kindness especially valuable, and it’s never a bad thing.

That’s why Nagisa’s surprised when Rei responds defensively. “I wasn’t going to admit to that!”

_Ah…_

“It’s okay, Rei-chan,” Nagisa offers, coming to sit comfortably on the other side of her. “If you’ve never had the chance to learn, of course you won’t be able to do it well on your first try.”

“You don’t understand,” Rei responds, quieter now. “It wasn’t beautiful…” When she receives only blank looks in response to that, she reddens and continues, “And I _have_ taken classes – just one or two, though,” she adds quickly. “When I was younger.”

“That’s why,” Nagisa blurts almost too enthusiastically. Rei’s eyes widen as she glances up to scrutinize his expression.

“Hazuki-san?”

“That’s why it’s better not to be so negative,” Nagisa hurries, hands held tightly fisted by his chest, kind of excited and extremely earnest at the same time. “I know you can do it. I really, _really really really_ think so. You have so much potential, Rei-chan, like maybe if you gave it a chance you could be as good as” – he shifts his attention in the direction of a new, now two-person row of swimmers about to dive – “that.”

It’s Haru’s turn.

Nagisa knows – it’s not him that Rei-chan needs to see swimming. He’ll do his best later, of course, but if – for the time being, at least – it’s got to be someone really worth admiring for their grace _anywhere,_ then Haru-chan is the best and only option.

He can see it in the way Rei springs to her feet mere moments later, eyes shining with something new, a longing –

– that, for all his clumsy interactions and sloppy planning, is probably his real moment of victory.

**~*~**

The second is the very first time Rei-chan decides to call Nagisa by his first name. It’s already amazing, being told what he’d already known, that his crazy-stupid determination’s somehow amounted to something, but all it takes is “Nagisa-kun” –

– and he finally can’t resist the urge to launch himself into a giddy hug.

 _She said yes she said_ yes _,_ and she’s warm to the touch and soft and taller than him and she doesn’t push him away despite her all-too-obvious astonishment.

So maybe she doesn’t mean for him to, but Nagisa feels like he’s been accepted as a friend twice in a row already.

**~*~**

Day one – this time of practice and not of school itself or short and bright moments – and of course people are talking again. There’s not as much gossip going around now as there had been at the very start, of course, but the buzz of news and rumors is always hard to kill entirely when there are teenagers involved.

“Hey, Rei-chan?”

Rei’s apparently been mostly oblivious to it all along, though. It makes sense to Nagisa; he’s under the impression now that the most talked-about people are also the ones who often aren’t aware of what’s said about them. Even when it’s not bad stuff, just because people are secretive and shy and maybe even a little afraid to put themselves on the line.

He’s kind of glad, too. He sort of remembers hearing once that you can’t be sure about things like love until you’ve had a year to let it sink in or slide away. Nagisa’s pretty sure he was never looking for anything more than a friend and teammate, anyway, and the last thing he wants is awkward distance or tension between them. It’s better for them not to tackle complicated things until way later, when they’ve had a fair chance to make up their minds and familiarize themselves with each other.

The fact that Nagisa’s obviously been putting a lot of thought into it isn’t enough on its own. He’s more than a little afraid of being rejected, after all, so he hopes that Rei-chan will eventually come to feel that way, too. Because if they both want the same thing, everything will be easy and there’ll be no harm done.

Nagisa really wants that to be how it all works out.

Rei-chan shoots him a look that stands somewhere between a glare and an embarrassed blush. “What is it?”

 “Your ribbon,” Nagisa chirps, returning the blush ten-fold with one of his own. He doesn’t quit smiling, anyway, though, and actually he doesn’t see any reason not to at least drop little hints like that; with so many days ahead, the harmless fun just _has_ to be okay.

“Oh, this,” she mumbles, reaching up to twirl one end of it around her finger. “I make sure to tie the bows more or less symmetrically every morning, but they may be more trouble than they’re worth, after all…”

Nagisa shakes his head. “No, I mean – it’s a different color from usual, right? I like it a lot!”

Rei sighs. “Thank you. But –”

“But?” Nagisa echoes.

“I’m planning on cutting it. There’s too much here; I can’t care for it properly and swim every day at the same time.”

Something twists inside Nagisa. “Is that really okay? It must’ve taken a long time to grow it out like that, and everyone seems to think it looks good long…”

Rei smiles. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s really better to go about this practically. I won’t cut off much – maybe just to here,” and she demonstrates with the flat of her hand pressed to a spot just above her elbow.

“That’s still a lot!”

“Why does it matter?!”

“Because,” Nagisa pouts. “I like it that way, too…”

“Ah –” Rei opens her mouth only to close it again without saying anything more. Her gaze shifts away from Nagisa’s face, but she doesn’t exactly look flustered. A little embarrassed, maybe flattered – Nagisa _hopes_ so – and also unnervingly like she thinks she should’ve seen the compliment coming.

“Sorry,” Nagisa wavers. “I guess what I mean is… you should keep it the way you really want it. You can always make it work even if you don’t cut it, but if you want to…” He struggles for a moment – squeezes his eyes shut and pouts a little – “Ah, I guess I really don’t want that, though!” he sighs at last.

Rei-chan sighs again, so Nagisa expects her to be frustrated with him – but instead of that, her smile when he looks up has only widened, spread to her eyes and the way she tilts her head and turns to walk to the train station ahead of Nagisa.

“I’ll consider it,” she calls over her shoulder, sport duffel in hand as the other holds her hair back from her eyes.


End file.
